A Perth businessman has been sentenced to more than seven years in jail for a multi-million dollar insurance scam that involved a deliberate burning of a former Bunnings headquarters.
A secret recording has revealed how businessman Hossean Pourzand plotted to set fire to the warehouse in Welshpool, an inner suburb of Perth in WA, with an unnamed associate in an attempt to claim the insurance.
The 5000sqm premises, owned by Pourzand, was previously a state headquarters of hardware giant Bunnings.
“Tonight is the night,” Pourzand could be heard saying on the recording released by a WA court. In the conversations, he was also recorded telling the associate about the clothing he should wear, the best time to commit the crime and how he should conceal his identity.
Justice Stephen Hall said Pourzand devised the plan and negotiated the fee with his associate, which included $50,000, a rent-free period of one year at one of his properties, and a $120,000 loan.
The associate went on to start the fire in the building using citronella oil, sash cord and candles on March 14, 2017, resulting in a blaze that took six hours for the emergency crew to contain and extensive damage to the Pilbara Street property.
Pourzand lodged the insurance claim the following day. The Supreme Court heard that the 65-year-old businessman could receive an amount between $8.5 million and $19.9 million if his insurance claim had been successful.
Pourzand said he intended to use the money from the insurance claim to fund a refit of the building.
Source: ABC News
Justice Hall described Pourzand as a “very willing, involved and interested participant in the plan to set fire to the building”, saying that he had the most to gain from the blaze.
Pourzand was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison.
